Nature Writer's Book Probes Threat of Development

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, February 29, 1996

Nature writer David Quammen wants to practice what he preaches. As readers

of his famed column in Outside magazine know, that's no small task. Few journalists have an environmental ethic as deeply grounded in biological science.

"The problems we face are not just caused by timber and mining companies," Quammen says, "but by every 'greenie' who goes out and tries to get himself a second home in the mountains. Fragmenting natural landscapes is what makes species go extinct."

Because of that knowledge, Quammen chooses to live in a small house on a tiny lot in downtown Bozeman, Mont. "It would be irresponsible for me to try to grab 1,000 acres for myself in the Beartooth Range. No matter how much I might want to live up there."

Quammen, 48, may see his domestic situation bounded by a concrete curb. But his research and his imagination wander all over the globe, and backward and forward through epochs. Now, his many outdoor excursions and ruminations have produced a new book, "The Song of the Dodo." Quammen calls it "far and away the most ambitious thing that I've done." He will speak on the themes of the book at The Chronicle's Great Outdoor Adventure Fair this weekend.

The new book examines the course of evolution and extinction on islands. That topic is tremendously relevant to our age, because the inroads of human, industrial development have cross-hatched every land mass except Antarctica, creating a patchwork of "biological islands" -- even in the center of continents. It means that large plants and animals, at the tops of food chains, will gradually lose connections they need to survive. Then, willy-nilly, these will be chased into oblivion by mid-range organisms.

"I'll talk about the journeys, geographical and intellectual, that resulted in the book," Quammen says. "It's kind of a detective story, that begins with an ecological murder mystery -- the disappearance of native birds on Quam."

The topic is serious, but Quammen is a wry humorist who likes to spike both text and talks with notes of whimsy. And he does see a ray of hope in our global situation. "I don't think it's too late for us to remedy the problems. But it will be soon, unless we become more aware, and curb ourselves to stop the trends."

Note: Quammen's talk at the Fair takes place on Saturday at 3 p.m. His new book, "Song of the Dodo," will be released by Scribner in April.